Wolves say Victor Wembanyama goaltending calls being missed

SAN ANTONIO — Spurs center Victor Wembanyama set an NBA playoff record with 12 blocks in Monday night’s Game 1 loss, but the Minnesota Timberwolves are adamant that one-third of them shouldn’t have counted.

“At least four of them were goaltending,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said. “Maybe even a fifth. To me, it’s a little alarming that none of them were called.”

The Timberwolves were still glowing in the aftermath of their stunning 104-102 series-opening road win after Tuesday morning’s film session, but Finch, perhaps delivering a subtle nudge to the NBA and its officials in the upcoming games against Wembanyama, pivoted the first question of his press scrum toward the perceived goaltending.

“Here’s a generational shot blocker, who is 7-foot-6 and goes after everything, and there’s no heightened awareness that these blocks could be a goaltend?” Finch asked. “The third possession of the game was a goaltend, and it was a clean obvious one.”

While the score was still 0-0, Wembanyama swatted a Terrence Shannon Jr. transition drive, but replays show that Shannon’s layup attempt quite clearly hit the backboard before Wembanyama contacted it, which should’ve resulted in a goaltending call.

The other handful of non-goaltend calls that angered the Timberwolves were more borderline, including a second-quarter swat of a Naz Reid hook that might’ve been on the way down and a first-quarter block of Rudy Gobert that, at minimum, appeared to be a foul.

“Let’s just say there were four [goaltends],” Finch said. “That’s eight points. You know the value of eight points in an NBA game? It’s massive. That means 33% of his blocks were goaltending uncalled. If I were to give you a 33% raise, you’d like that, right? It’s a huge number.”

Gobert is teammates with Wembanyama on the French national team and has become somewhat of a mentor to the rising superstar, but the two are squared up in a competitive center matchup in this second round.

“He fouled me on the first one,” Gobert said. “But if you look at them, probably three or four [goaltends].”

The 7-foot-1 Gobert is 24th in career blocks and has long been considered one of the league’s best rim protectors. He had one block in Game 1.

“I wish I had that type of treatment, too,” he said.

Game 2 is Wednesday night in San Antonio.